Age and donor safety in living-donor liver transplant in 110 consecutive cases at 1 institute.
OBJECTIVE
Since Japan began doing living-donor liver transplants, the demographics of living donors, including their age, have changed. We sought to assess the impact of aging on the feasibility and safety of doing a hepatectomy in living donors.


METHODS
We analyzed data from 110 consecutive liver donors who had undergone a hepatectomy at our institution. To extract the graft, 34 patients had a lateral segmentectomy, 38 had a left lobectomy, and 38 had a right lobectomy.


RESULTS
Mean intraoperative blood loss was significantly greater in older donors (age > 40 years) than it was in younger donors (age = 40 years). In addition, the mean number of days required for the serum albumin level to return to normal after surgery was significantly longer in older donors (34.3 -/+ 11.9 days vs 17.1 -/+ 9.7 days). A multivariate analysis showed donor age to be a significant risk factor for prolonged serum albumin recovery.


CONCLUSIONS
Donor age is a significant factor affecting postoperative liver functioning in the donor.
Ishiko
Takatoshi
T
Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjyo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan. ishiko@krmc.or.jp
Inomata
Yukihiro
Y
Beppu
Toru
T
Asonuma
Katuhiko
K
Okajima
Hideaki
H
Takeitchi
Takayuki
T
Baba
Hideo
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical; D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D019520:Living Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012449:Safety; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000378:metabolism; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D055815:Young Adult
D012709:Serum Albumin